Kuo: Apple AR headset to feature 15 cameras for 'pass-through' VR experience, biometrics
Apple's hotly anticipated augmented reality headset will be bristling with cameras to enable a range of advanced AR experiences, biometrics and more, according to well-connected analyst Ming-Chi Kuo.
Facebook's Oculus Quest 2 features four cameras.
Kuo in a note to investors on Tuesday predicted Apple to integrate a total of 15 cameras in an AR/MR headset rumored to launch in 2022. By comparison, existing VR hardware typically integrates between two and five cameras for interacting with the surrounding environment and performing image pass-through operations.
Eight camera modules, supplied mainly by Largan, are expected to be placed around the wearable "helmet" to facilitate pass-through VR, a technology that allows users to "see through" the enclosed device by feeding exterior images onto interior screens. Apple's product is said to utilize high-resolution MicroOLED displays.
Along with the eight cameras dedicated to pass-through VR, six modules will feed "innovative biometrics," Kuo says. It is unclear if the analyst is referencing user security biometrics -- like Face ID -- or the ability to capture facial features and body movements of others nearby for inclusion in a simulated experience.
Finally, a single camera module will be installed for environmental detection purposes.
Kuo outlined Apple's rumored headset in a report on Sunday. A first iteration expected to land in 2022 will boast its own processor and onboard storage, meaning it can operate without a connected iPhone or Mac. Deemed a portable device, the first-generation headset device is unlikely to be marketed as a mobile product.
Thanks to high specification hardware like MicroOLED screens and the 15-camera array, Kuo says Apple's first AR/MR wearable will deliver an "immersive experience that is significantly better than existing VR products."
Previous reports pegged the AR headset at $3,000, though Kuo said Apple will likely set a price closer to $1,000 to cover its complex design and construction.
Apple is also rumored to release a pair of AR glasses that leverage optical waveguide tech to overlay computer generated graphics onto real scenery. Dubbed "Apple Glass," the mobile device could be sold alongside the AR/MR headset and is anticipated to launch in 2025. The tech giant is also said to be working on a similar system based on contact lenses that could see introduction after 2030.
Kuo in today's report reiterates previous predictions about optics set to debut in next-generation iPhone models. For 2021, Face ID on iPhone will transition from a glass cover to plastic, while the 2022 model will rely on a "unibody" lens design that integrates the lens stack and voice coil motor into a single, space-saving assembly. Next year will also see Apple upgrade the telephoto shooter on high-end iPhones from a 6P lens array to a 7P stack.
Facebook's Oculus Quest 2 features four cameras.
Kuo in a note to investors on Tuesday predicted Apple to integrate a total of 15 cameras in an AR/MR headset rumored to launch in 2022. By comparison, existing VR hardware typically integrates between two and five cameras for interacting with the surrounding environment and performing image pass-through operations.
Eight camera modules, supplied mainly by Largan, are expected to be placed around the wearable "helmet" to facilitate pass-through VR, a technology that allows users to "see through" the enclosed device by feeding exterior images onto interior screens. Apple's product is said to utilize high-resolution MicroOLED displays.
Along with the eight cameras dedicated to pass-through VR, six modules will feed "innovative biometrics," Kuo says. It is unclear if the analyst is referencing user security biometrics -- like Face ID -- or the ability to capture facial features and body movements of others nearby for inclusion in a simulated experience.
Finally, a single camera module will be installed for environmental detection purposes.
Kuo outlined Apple's rumored headset in a report on Sunday. A first iteration expected to land in 2022 will boast its own processor and onboard storage, meaning it can operate without a connected iPhone or Mac. Deemed a portable device, the first-generation headset device is unlikely to be marketed as a mobile product.
Thanks to high specification hardware like MicroOLED screens and the 15-camera array, Kuo says Apple's first AR/MR wearable will deliver an "immersive experience that is significantly better than existing VR products."
Previous reports pegged the AR headset at $3,000, though Kuo said Apple will likely set a price closer to $1,000 to cover its complex design and construction.
Apple is also rumored to release a pair of AR glasses that leverage optical waveguide tech to overlay computer generated graphics onto real scenery. Dubbed "Apple Glass," the mobile device could be sold alongside the AR/MR headset and is anticipated to launch in 2025. The tech giant is also said to be working on a similar system based on contact lenses that could see introduction after 2030.
Kuo in today's report reiterates previous predictions about optics set to debut in next-generation iPhone models. For 2021, Face ID on iPhone will transition from a glass cover to plastic, while the 2022 model will rely on a "unibody" lens design that integrates the lens stack and voice coil motor into a single, space-saving assembly. Next year will also see Apple upgrade the telephoto shooter on high-end iPhones from a 6P lens array to a 7P stack.
Comments
Yeah, I think that kind of a specific prediction is a little ridiculous. It's one thing to say he expects an Apple car by 2025, or a headset by whatever time. But speculating on the number of cameras? Predicting a separate camera for "environmental detection?" This is getting as bad as the old MacOSrumors site predicting an octagonal Mac.
Ming-Chi Kuo | Reports, Rumors, Accuracy, History (appleinsider.com)
Airtags were supposed to materialize in mid-2020. They haven't.
AirPods Max which he called "AirPods Studio" back in January 2020. They actually happened in December of 2020 but what's odd is that nothing was predicted in the few months preceding their release.
Apple Glass to launch in Q2 of 2020. Result: Nada!
August 2016: AMOLED iPad to launch in 2018. Again zero.
To be fair, it's not every time Kuo is cited, but sifting quickly through the last year or so of Kuo predictions on AI reveal these nuggets:
- according to noted TF International Securities analyst Ming-Chi Kuo.
- As one of the best-known Apple analysts, Ming-Chi Kuo is also regarded as one of the most accurate, both for features and supply chain data.
- Reliable Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo says...
- Typically reliable analyst Ming-Chi Kuo claims that...
- well-regarded analyst Ming-Chi Kuo says that...
- ...according to well-connected analyst Ming-Chi Kuo
- The typically reliable analyst Ming-Chi Kuo reports that...
- Kuo, who has generally been highly accurate about Apple plans, confirms...
Also to be fair, it's not just AI that employs these Kuo descriptors. My point is that these frequent and friendly bumps likely have more effect on Kuo's reputation than his actual level of accuracy in predicting Apple things. Interestingly, snipping these out revealed not only the array of predictions described above, but also that these snippets were quite frequently proximate to Kuo statements effectively taking a mulligan by revising previous predictions.Remember Google Glass? Yeah, no one else does either.
Meanwhile, EPYC 3 arrives next week and Zen 4 engineering samples near testing for Frontier Supercomputer and more OEM vendors that blow the doors off of their predecessor arrive this quarter showing the genius of AMD merging with Xilinx.
Instead of increasing options for computing we are seeing less and less professional options and soon people will realize the 14 years of ARM development that people think will sprout wings and take over the world in General Purpose Computing [Consumer/Professional Desktop/Workstations] will soon discover that the future of M series processors has some very hard limits. And those limits will be forcing Apple to push for major changes in ARM architectures or just breaking from it all together.
EPYC 4 Genoa is coming out with 96 cores/ 192 threads, 4TB of DDR5 ECC memory announced this Fall for Spring 2022 delivery. Just like clock work with Su and Co. Oh and CDNA 2.0 arrives this Fall with 128 GB HBM2e and Xilinx Engines on massive Compute only cards that would hugely benefit Mac Pros but we'll never see them, and yet fans still have it in their head that Apple somehow is more advanced than AMD's upcoming MCM based multi-GPU chiplets on a single card solution with their unified Memory path of Infinity Fabric 3.0. Or more to the point, they somehow invented unified memory as a first in the industry, completely showing how no one knows this has been done more than once before and recently.
But hey, people here are all a lather about M2 and whatever that brings and VR/AR head sets, while spitting on an actual EV that has a far greater impact on the future that they consider just vaporware.
Apple will continue to push their targets for future Macs back as they come up against more design issues that don't match their rhetoric and hype of last year's WWDC. People seem to forget the M1 is not a new processor, but a 14 year result processor for light weight computing.
Meanwhile, Microsoft is full steam ahead with both AMD and Intel for their Surface 4 lines, and not ARM.